25 countries actively participated in the Air Defender 23 exercise, excluding Sweden and Japan, which are not members of the North Atlantic Alliance. The total number of deployed soldiers is ten thousand and the number of aircraft reaches 250. Around two thousand flights are planned during the exercise. The largest contingent of aircraft, approximately one hundred, is provided by the United States of America. The Czech Republic is actively participating in the exercise with four Gripen aircraft, as reported by Czech Television reporter Pavel Polák from the scene in Berlin.
At a time of tense relations with Russia, air maneuvers are taking place, which are the most extensive in the history of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO). The German Air Force has already stated in advance that it is not interested in further escalating disputes with Moscow through these exercises and has repeatedly confirmed that NATO will focus exclusively on testing defensive operations and that no offensive actions will be part of the maneuvers.
“The maneuvers will take place mainly in German airspace, but the planes will also take off from the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, specifically from Čáslav,” Polák added.
Gripen
Photo:
Wikipedia
Aggression by the fictitious Eastern Military Bloc
As part of the air exercise, NATO and especially Germany, which commands the operation, refrain from any mention of Russia. Exercising focuses in response to the aggressive advance of the fictitious Eastern military bloc OCCASUS. According to the scenario, the OCCASUS bloc managed to invade Germany from the east and occupy a quarter of the country. Now, with the help of special forces and sabotage actions, they are trying to penetrate north towards the Baltic and take control of the strategically important port of Rostock. The exercise scenario also includes elements of a hybrid war, where part of the population in Germany sympathizes with the enemy bloc, the economy is depleted after the covid-19 pandemic, inflation is high and the country is struggling with energy shortages.
Three large areas are set aside for maneuvers in German airspace, namely in the south-west of the country, in the north-east including the Baltic and in the north including the areas above the North Sea. The scale of the exercise may lead to complications in civil air transport. Willy Brandt Airport on the border between Berlin and Brandenburg warns of possible delays website. According to the commander of the German Air Force, Ingo Gerhartz, the maneuvers will have only minimal effects on civil air traffic. He therefore believes that the limitations can only be in the order of minutes.
NATO is testing air defense over Germany, the Air Defender exercise began on the 23rd
Photo: Bundeswehr
Demonstration near Hanover
Demonstrations against the ongoing maneuvers took place in Germany over the weekend. Several hundred people gathered on Saturday in front of the Wunstorf base near Hanover, which serves as a logistics junction and where a mobile warehouse with a capacity of 2.4 million liters of aviation fuel was built for the exercise. The demonstrators expressed their demand for an end to the fighting in Ukraine, the cancellation of the maneuvers and the start of the process of military disarmament.
Criticism of the maneuvers was also expressed by the co-chairman of the parliamentary faction of the post-communist party Left, Dietmar Bartsch, who described the exercises as a practice for war. He pointed out that the German government is making savings in spending, but not in defense. He said on Twitter: “Cuts will hit those who already have little: three million (German) children living in poverty, a shameful record.”
Source: eurozpravy.cz
